January 15, 2010
Utica schools: Keeping taxpayers in the dark (again)
The Utica school board ratified a new teachers contract in September 2008--even though school business officials could not tell them how much it will cost future taxpayers. Now, the district says it has calculated the cost, but it refuses to make it public.
At issue is the creation of new retiree health benefits for teachers hired since 1978. Many of them are at or nearing retirement age. The costs of their benefits will be born by future generations of taxpayers.
A new accounting standard, know as "GASB-45"(Government Accounting Standard Board), requires the Utica City School District to reveal its future liability for retiree health benefits. The district, however, refuses to disclose its GASB-45 projection.
As the Utica Observer-Dispatch reports:
"Releasing the report could have an impact on current negotiations," Superintendent James Willis said. "The average Joe may look at that and say 'those are way too expensive.' The perception of the public could be such that they put a demand on board members concerning current negotiations. But they don't understand that for everything we give, there's a take." The long-term future costs easily will be in the tens of millions of dollars. In 2008, the district said it then paid $1.4 million a year for health benefits for retirees hired prior to 1979.
In September 2008, the Utica school district refused to make the tentative teachers contract public prior to its ratification. As one school board member argued at the time, "If it's released, the O-D [Observer Dispatch] could write an editorial on what is right or wrong with the contract and influence board members' votes."
The district currently is negotiating contracts with its clerical union and the Service Employees International Union, which represents teacher assistants and bus monitors.
If the district continues past practice, it will refuse to release tentative contracts with those unions until after the school board ratifies them. Will those contracts also include an expensive expansion of retiree health insurance benefits? Utica taxpayers likely will find out after it's too late.
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